Aidnography

Hi all,  This week's #globaldev readings take you on a global tour from Canada to the US, El Salvador, Nepal, India, Kiribati, Kenya & the UK!  Plus, a special section on digital/virtual meetings & conferences in a time of crisis! Enjoy! My quotes of the week The Commission finds that there were weaknesses in the charity’s workplace culture, and that Save the Children UK let down the complainants, its staff and the wider public. The charity’s handling of the complaints was so poor in certain respects that it amounted to mismanagement. (Save the Children UK let down complainants and public over handling of allegations of workplace harassment)     The relationship between mother and daughter is out of sync. Devi is worldlier after her time in the city. When she and her mum go to sign the documents confirming her return, Devi signs her name, but illiterate Kalawati can only leave a thumb print. “Once they come back to their family, there is a hierarc...

Hi all, From #globaldev plastic words to inclusive conferencing and McDonald's & race there's quite a nice, eclectic mix of weekend readings ready for you!  Enjoy!   My quotes of the week The term ‘empowerment’ embodies a lot of wishful thinking (Confessions of a gender advisor: Why I avoid the word “empowerment”) When fast food gets into black communities and poor black communities in particular, however, it once again becomes this place with all these negative associations. Part of what gets lost in that frame is what is happening in the rest of the community. Why do people have to congregate there? Why is this the place where kids can hang out? Why is this one of the few places that’s open all night? The crime has already been done—the structural crimes, the chaos has happened. An uprising happens, and that is when there’s scrutiny on these places. It’s interesting that there are these negative associations with fast food because, in fact, what allows fast food to e...

Hi all, Last week's review focused more on #globaldev professionalism; this week ICT4D, tech & researching, doing & reflecting on development in 'difficult places' are key themes! Enjoy! My quotes of the week They are recurring and systemic acts which affect society as a whole and involve us all. They emanate from historically unequal relations of power between men and women, which have established relations of domination and discrimination (...). One should, therefore, draw the coverage of these violences out of the miscellaneous news or «news in brief» columns where they are too often confined and approach them as societal phenomenons which deserve to be reported on the frontpage or in prime time in order to highlight their structural character. (“The coverage of violence against women fluctuates between silence and sensationalism”) In order to change that, for the past two semesters now, I have made it a practice of together with my students sending positive...